I was at the final “Vote for Change” concert in DC last night, covering it for my radio station. The good news was that the five hour concert contained less than 15 minutes of overt political content. The better news (for me, anyway) is that most of the political commentary was innocuous, idiotic or both. Bruce Springsteen, for example, announced that one reason he’s backing Kerry is to get a “living wage,” i.e., a $10/hour federal minimum wage. This will no doubt come as news to Sen. Kerry.
James Taylor took a few cheap shots, calling John Kerry the “smart one,” and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam sang a song fantasizing about the approaching death of some unnamed political figure currently serving as president of the United States. But most annoying was the insufferable Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. She immediately brought up her infamous Bush-bashing incident when she slammed the president during a concert in London last year. “People asked me if I wanted to take back what I said,” she twanged last night. “Well, no, ’cause Bush would just call me a flip-flopper.”
Shades of Senator Kerry, here is what Ms. Maines said in March of 2003 when fans started throwing her CDs in the dumpster: “As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect.”
So she refuses to apology after she’s already apologized.